Jason Hiner/ZDNET
Apple put lots of its concentrate on the skilled digital camera options within the new iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max throughout this week’s launch occasion.
Actually, Apple dropped so many ideas, phrases, and acronyms in such a brief house of time that it might need left your head spinning.
Additionally: The whole lot Apple simply introduced: iPhone 15, Apple Watch Extremely 2, AirPods
Worry not, as now we have now time to breathe, we are able to return over these options and clarify their significance.
Let’s begin with the knowledge dump on this one slide:
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Focal size is a shorthand for explaining how broad a picture the digital camera lens will seize. The smaller the quantity, the broader the seize.
Technically right here, the lens is not a 24 millimeter lens, however a 24 millimeter-equivalent lens, however we are going to overlook that.
2.44 µm (micron) is the dimensions of the pixels capturing the sunshine within the sensor, and quad-pixel refers to how 4 pixels are grouped to behave as a bigger 2.44 micron pixel.
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Every 2×2 grouping of pixels is assigned a single coloration, and 4 of those pixel bundles are then grouped collectively in two inexperienced bundles and one blue and crimson bundle. Inexperienced will get extra pixels as a result of the human eye is essentially the most delicate to that coloration.
100% focus pixels means all of the pixels are used for the needs of focusing the picture. Previously, solely among the pixels have been used, however utilizing all of the pixels is now frequent in high-end sensors.
Aperture refers to how a lot mild is let onto the sensor by the lens, and is measured in f-stop numbers. The decrease this quantity, the extra mild the lens allows.
OIS stands for Optical Picture Stabilization, which is a method the place the lens or sensor is shifted to be able to compensate for the motion of the digital camera whereas the shot is being taken.
Different phrases dropped throughout the occasion have been RAW and ProRAW.
RAW may be regarded as a digital detrimental (keep in mind movie negatives?), which is a file format that saves the uncooked knowledge captured by the sensor with out processing it or changing it right into a file, akin to a JPG. RAW information are greater and include extra element, however require modifying earlier than being printed or posted on social media.
ProRAW is an Apple file format that makes use of the trade customary digital detrimental (DNG) file format to permit the file to be edited in high-end modifying instruments, akin to Adobe Lightroom.
Additionally: What’s ProRes and why does Apple maintain mentioning it?
One other closely used time period was optical zoom, which is a method the place the picture is magnified by the lens itself, versus digital zoom, which merely crops in on the picture, and in consequence loses element.
There’s additionally HDR, which stands for Excessive Dynamic Vary pictures. It is a approach that mixes a number of pictures right into a single picture to get extra element within the highlights (vibrant areas) and shadows (darkish areas).
Macro pictures is the place you get in near the topic — akin to flowers or bugs — to take close-up pictures.
Additionally: A17 Professional deep dive: A take a look at Apple’s new iPhone 15 Professional chip
Now, let’s transfer onto video — and the very first thing I would like to elucidate is ProRes.
Apple talks quite a bit about ProRes as a result of it is a video codec (quick for encoder/decoder, or typically compressor/decompressor) developed by Apple. ProRes, which dates again to 2007, is particular as a result of, whereas it compresses the video — and this compression will invariably end result within the lack of some picture element (that is also known as “lossy”) — this misplaced picture element shouldn’t be visually noticeable.
To place that one other manner, ProRes is a visually lossless, lossy video compression format.
The draw back of ProRes is that file sizes are big, but it surely does make modifying a lot simpler and higher.
To mitigate the massive storage wants that ProRes places on videographers, the iPhone 15 Professional helps recording to exterior drives — such because the Samsung T7 SSD — which implies that you are not restricted to the space for storing you’ve gotten out there on the iPhone.
Two different bits of jargon sprinkled into the protection of the digital camera have been Log encoding and LUTs.
Log encoding is a profile that information video with a flat, muted coloration profile to seize and keep extra particulars in highlights and shadows. The iPhone 15 Professional is the primary smartphone to help ACES, the Academy Coloration Encoding System.
Additionally: iPhone 15 Professional vs. iPhone 14 Professional: Which mannequin is finest to purchase?
The draw back is that this format must be edited earlier than use, and one of many modifying steps it to use a LUT, or Look Up Desk, which is a file that incorporates data to remap and remodel the flat footage into video that has coloration and distinction, which may then be additional edited to match no matter type is desired.
Enhancing video that is formatted in Log — and dealing with LUTs — requires skilled instruments, akin to Adobe Premier Professional.
I hope this rundown helps these of you who have been confused by among the terminology used, and maybe it is even inspired you to be somewhat extra artistic — or technical — in your pictures or videography.